New year frugalling commences. Save those pennies for January

[ememem84]

New Fred.

Decs down and put away , decluttered & cleaned the present jungle room dining room & front room , then tip run with the rubbish.Had a LSD today Dh bought loaf of bread & paper for the TV book. Mum had the paper after us , I have resisted buying anything for presents again today YAY ! My dining room looks so much better l hope it will give me the motivation to keep to my word and not buy the damn bargain presents honestly l am like an addict with them!

Fear, can l ask you what was the offer on the Morrisons powder/ Fabric conditioner offer please? Need some tomorrow .

Decorations down here too. We're pretty minimalist in that department anyway (a small, sparse tree; two bits of tinsel over pictures; Christmas bunting and front door wreath) - when we put them up I always wonder if we should have more but then on pack-up day I high-5 myself when it only takes 10 minutes to pack it all away!

Pantomime this afternoon with dd1 - £5.50 parking. It was fab

£1.78 on 2x tins of coconut milk for Thai curry tonight. Hadn't realised we only have a minuscule amount of rice left but I'm not leaving the house again now so we'll have a bit of rice and a few oven chips !

Such a chatty thread. But my ears did perk up at the mention of minestrone - food of the gods! Yours sounds lovely laksa

My huge slow cooked chilli came into its own when friends came over for tea. Made veggy soup too for the fridge. Supplemental £3.60 for 3 frozen pizzas for the kids from Co-op but not a bad day. NT trip out this afternoon so free.

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin how old are your dc? Just so I know how long to expect the fireman stage to go on for....ds is 2...

Hope it’s ok if I join. I work 2 days a week but I’m hoping to build up my business this year. I have 1 good client & 1 which is mates rates so ideally I’d like at least another good client this year. DH is building up His own business but it’s in an industry where income is not frequent or guaranteed. He’s so much happier now though. Fortunately we own our own home (mortgage free), all renovations have been completed & have an investment property for the DC so no huge financial pressure. Just day to day living & savings for things like holidays. We haven’t been abroad in 5 years. I owe £5885 on CC but expecting to pay that off by the end of March. I want to spend less money on clothes, eating out & general crap & instead save that money for days out with the family or holidays. I also want to enter 2021 debt free. January, February & March needs to be especially frugal but tough with all the sales going on.

Mrsmadevans - big surf 4.50 for 45 washes and i think its 5 litre comfort softner - 3.50 so i stocked up... i only use fabric conditioner in the months i cannot peg it outside, come March, its back out. But thats a good price i thought! If you dont have a morrisons match and more card they are giving you £5 to join...my best friend just did it...and no i dont work for them

There are others on offer to bold etc...thr box of surf i bought has 8 pounds worth of vouchers for future surf purchases too! Result i thought.

NSD!

Just watched that Masked Singer thing. It was bizarre but nice to all watch something/shout at the telly together - since getting Netflix a year ago we do far less family telly!

Oh l haven't got a card thank you Fear that's a good deal re the powder, 10p a wash , l usually use Aldi bio tablets in a green box
www.aldi.co.uk/bio-washing-tablets/p/056325020805200
10p a wash but l put 4 in for stained whites my tea towels are grim sometimes
Thank you

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm back to work full-time from Monday so I'm aiming to be super organized this year. My plans are:-

Big Tesco delivery once a month for dry goods/cleaning products/non-perishables. I'm in the process of doing up a spreadsheet with a list of products and columns for (1) stocktake (how many I have already) and (2) how many I need to order to see me through the month. It'll probably take me a month or two to get my levels right but I'm hoping to have it down to a fine art by March or April.

Lidl/local butcher/fishmonger once a week for fresh products.

Meal plan, shop and clean on Saturday.

Batch cook (for week) on Sunday. If I cook one or two dishes each Sunday (casserole, pasta bake, lasagne, chicken curry, seafood chowder etc.), I should have enough to fill a few freezer containers.

This should all help to avoid food waste and also reduce the amount of takeaways I eat (not good for my waist or pocket).

I'll save all my Tesco coupons during the year and put them towards my big shop in December.

I do all of this to a degree already but I really want to stay on top of it this year.

Spends today:-

Butcher €5.80
Local shop €2.50
Lidl €13.59
Tesco €45.63

Total spends €67.52

The Tesco shop included a few freezer containers. I may need to get more.

Will be back for a read of your posts in a bit.

Veggie/vegan Shepard’s pie for dinner. Packed with about a million different veggies. (Lentils, tomatoes peppers courgette mushroom spinach peas carrot parsnip and potato on top). Yum.

Two portions (enough for dh and I in each box) have gone in the freezer.

As of Monday it’s vegan time again.

@ememem84 - He’s 4 and his interest is not showing any signs of abating so you might have another couple of years of naughty Norman Price yet

all oh bugger. Before he went to bed we had to put our fireman hats away. He insisted. On the little shelf in our front porch. With the shoes and coats. Like fireman Sam does. If ds wasn’t so cute....

Plan love the hair.

Allmy was it your DS that wants to do his bike … I am sorting through loads of bike bits atm. Let me know what he needs & I will see if we have spares.

I am annoyed with dh... I have spent days sorting through his shite and putting it away ( we are part house part bike shed). Not one word of thanks. Not one..... dickhead award is going out early this year.

Good news all family and friends are currently safely evacuated from the fires in Oz.... they still have 2 months of the normal fire season to go so hopefully they remain safe.

That's really cute Em!

YNAB Referral Link Budgeting App

€50 babysitter
€12 drinks
€5.60 6 eggs, club milk & lb butter

Knew it wouldn't last.Yesterday
15 dog class. We do flyball
26 Tesco
36 petrol
25 riding lesson. Have my own. That may and We where all the money goes🐴🐴🐴

accountant you may be right..

Aiming for nsd today.

God yes accidental. We don't own but DD is desperate to.

£10 Chinese last night.
Open air museum today. Ice-skating will be £10 plus sweets £5 ish.

life me too. The issue I have is time vs money. If I didn’t work I’d have the time to dedicate to the pony for turning out and exercising etc. But not the money. By working we (possibly) have the money but not the time.

The house is still quiet. I’m downstairs with catface and a cup of tea. Both kiddos and dh are still asleep.

Morning. Last day of the holidays . Sports start again today so I need to move my bones and go and stand in the mud for a few hours. Will take coffee so I don't spend anything

Wow, you are all so chatty!

Awful night’s sleep. The returning to work on Monday fear has set in and also it’s DD2s party today. We unfrugally paid the money to have it at soft play and they provide the food too. But I don’t know many of the parents and I hate small talk with strangers.

We need to do a proper food shop today.

I’ve barely written any of my assignment either. I need this time off to last longer! 6 weeks until half term

Joining in as this year I want to clear the £2900 on a credit card. I think I have about 6 months left on the interest free then I will swap it again. F I emptied out all my savings pots (different bank accounts all allocated to things), I could just about clear it.
However, I want to go on holiday and the holiday fund has almost enough in and the ISA has £1000 as an emergency fund so I have convinced myself I am ok.
I have started skimming off the odd bits on the bank accounts and paying that off the cc to make little unnoticed indents.
I am pretty good at budgeting (17 years as a lone parent helps there!).
I have also pulled together the weightloss plan. I had a nasty UTI over Xmas and DH is currently in the midst of an arthritis flare up aggravated by (we think) far too much dairy (cheese and chocolate).
I need to radically overhaul our eating (i have almost 8 stones to lose) to get our health sorted. DH is a cancer survivor and we are both mid to late 50s with a 1 year old grandson who we want to see grow up.
I joined the Mumsnet FB fatfighters group which is fab and hopefully, posting here will help too.
Today, I have £13.80 in my purse and other than some wraps for DH's lunches, I don't think I need any more shopping till he gets paid on Friday.
I think I will then go back to cash shopping only as I seem to save more that way.

I have to start my assignments soon too love. The questions get released next week so I’m going to use the remainder of my time off researching and throwing together ideas. I have 5000 words to write for each one. Two to be submitted and passed by October. Should be doable.